Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on May 5, 2016 12:10:47 GMT -6
www.f4wonline.com/other-wrestling/week-british-wrestling-dar-books-his-place-wwe-gcs-212206
THE WEEK IN BRITISH WRESTLING: NOAM DAR BOOKS HIS PLACE IN THE WWE GCS
BY ALAN BOON | @indysleaze | MAY 5, 2016 9:37 AM
Here's 5 things you need to know about British wrestling this week:
1) Noam Dar qualified for the WWE Global Cruiserweight Series.
The latest qualifier for the summer series - to be taped at Full Sail University in June and broadcast throughout July and August - was held at Revolution Pro-Wrestling's latest TV taping, at the compact and bijou Cockpit Theatre in London's Marylebone. Although Dar had already been named as being seeded into the tournament by Triple H on a pre-Takeover conference call last month, he was instead selected to face former RevPro Cruiserweight champion Josh Bodom for a place in the series. Dedicating the match to Kris Travis, who died last month (and wearing a Travis t-shirt throughout), Dar triumphed over his rival, winning the match by submission, to join Zack Sabre Jr & Jack Gallagher in the tournament.
The show was main-evented by Zack Sabre Jr's second RevPro British Heavyweight title defense, against the "Beast of Belfast", Big Damo. Sabre Jr had earlier appeared to pull his LDRS Of The New School tag partner Marty Scurll away from a beatdown on Dar, being delivered by Scurll's stablemates in the Revolutionists, and it was Scurll who was instrumental in Sabre Jr's victory against Damo, whacking the huge Ulsterman with his umbrella behind the referee's - and Sabre Jr's - back.
As part of an agreement between the two promotions, RevPro also played host to a Pro-Wrestling EVE title match, with champion Rhia O'Reilly successfully defending against Addy Starr. After the match, PROGRESS mainstay Jinny made her presence known, attacking Starr and leaving her laying in the ring. Earlier in the card, Marty Scurll defeating Trent Seven (making his RevPro debut), and the show also featured Joel Redman & Charlie Garrett.
RevPro announced that Matt "Son of Havoc" Cross and "Speedball" Mike Bailey would be on the next set of tapings on June 5th, and also added 2 matches to the undercard of the Sabre Jr/Kurt Angle show - Will Ospreay versus Bailey, and Big Damo versus Big Daddy Walter. The relevant information can be found on their website, and all these shows appear very quickly on RevPro On Demand.
2) Joseph Conners rebuilt his Righteous Army.
Down to a lowly 2 members, following Jimmy Havoc's injury & Kay Lee Ray losing a Loser Leaves Southside match in December, Joseph Conners's Righteous Army have been a less-than-terrifying unit of late. That all changed in Southside on Saturday night in Nottingham, as KLR returned, and was joined by the veteran Paul Malen (a former Southside tag-team champion, with Conners) in a beatdown of el Ligero. That led to Conners retaining his Southside title, but only served to amp up the war between him & Ligero.
The following night, in St Neots, Southside made a statement, agreeing to KLR's reinstatement, but only on the grounds that the Righteous Army meet a foursome of Ligero's choosing in Stevenage in July. Further stipulations were added, and if they win, Ligero will have to join the Army - if they lose, they will have to disband.
The Nottingham swing, held at the Rushcliffe Leisure Centre, was one of Southside's usual afternoon & evening affairs (Day Of Reckoning 11 & Retribution, respectively), and also saw Andrew Everett defend his Southside Speed King title against Jody Fleisch. The card was stacked, with Awesome Kong and TNA luchador Tigre Uno also in, and the highlights included Conners beating Zack Sabre Jr, a women's four-way between Kong, Nixon Newell, Lana Austin & Alexis Windsor, and Pete Dunne downing Tyler Bate. The show also featured Mark Andrews, Martin Kirby, Tommy End, Mark Haskins, Chris Brookes & Southside Tag-Team champions, the Second City Collective.
The St Neots show, titled Notorious 6ix, was held at Southside's home venue of the Priory Centre, and was main-evented by another Speed King defense, with Everett putting the belt on the line against Andrews in a high-flying encounter which the American won. The Second City Collective defended their titles in the match of the night, seeing off the challenge of the Young Wolves, Tyler Bate & Dan Moloney, and Awesome Kong issued an open challenge which was first answered by Nixon Newell, but then taken up by Kay Lee Ray after Newell had fallen victim to a chairshot from the red-haired Scot. Also on the show el Ligero, Tommy End, Martin Kirby, Mark Haskins, Chris Brookes, Tigre Uno & Gangrel. Southside return on July 9th in Stevenage.
3) Doug Williams & Johnny Kidd kicked it OLD SCHOOL in Suffolk.
Just up the road from their usual Colchester base, the XWA headed to the Delphi Centre in Sudbury on Saturday for Spring Break!, a show marked - if not main-evented - by a clash of the veterans, working an old style which at one point looked to be disappearing but in fact has made quite the comeback. Johnny Kidd, 60 years old and a 40 year veteran, took on Doug Williams, who would probably be quite keen on me telling you he hasn't got quite that many years on the clock, in a *World of Sport Lord Mountevans Rules match, fought under the traditional British rounds system, and with the winner having to earn two falls, two submissions, or a knockout to defeat his opponent. It was Williams who triumphed, two falls to one in the fifth round, but Kidd (who is on something of a farewell tour) was always in the match.
The show's actual main event was an XWA Frontier Sports title match, between champion Danny Blaze and "Blackbelt" Tom Dawkins. Blaze picked up the win, by disqualification, to keep his title, as did Rhia O'Reilly, who was defending her Pro-Wrestling EVE title against Ayesha Ray. Earlier in the card, former UK Pitbull BULK beat TNA British Bootcamp semi-finalist Richard Parliament, "Pastor" William Eaver defeated Joe FX, and the powerhouse team of Critical Mass (Titan & Dominator) were disqualified against "Whizz Kid" Lance Lawrence & Voodoo. The XWA return to Colchester on June 12th.
4) Jimmy Havoc pulled a surprise out of his bag of tricks.
Despite being injured on a tour of Australia in February, Jimmy havoc has managed to keep hold of his IPW:UK title, employing heel referee Artemis to finagle his way out of actually defending the thing. On Sunday's Super Scrum show, at the Angel Centre in Tonbridge, Havoc was due to face Jon Ryan, a title shot won at March's Supershow 2, when Ryan - and his teammates on manager Dean Ayass's trio - defeated Artemis's proxies. With Havoc still injured, and claiming to have left the belt at home, it looked like the champion might have gotten away with it again, only for IPW:UK owner Daniel Edler to demand that Havoc defend the title or be stripped of it!
Obviously unable to fight, Havoc was still one step ahead and produced Joseph Conners (who had beaten Chris Tyler in St Neots for Southside two hours earlier) to fight on his behalf. The switch was allowed and Ryan won the match, but by DQ meaning Havoc kept his title. Again.
The other IPW:UK titles were all defended on the show, kicked off by tag-team champions DnD seeing off the challenge of Jay Sammon & Jody Fleisch (subbing for Jay's brother, Patrick). IPW:UK Women's champion Jetta lost, but by disqualification, to Pollyanna, and All-England title holder Sammy Smooth beat Johnny Kidd, two falls to one in a British rounds match.
Scott Star won the eponymous Super Scrum, outlasting Zack Gibson, Jonny Storm, T-Bone, Nathan Cruz, Tom Dawkins, Dave Mastiff & RJ Singh in a stacked match, and the show also featured Chuck Mambo, TK Cooper, ROH World Tag-Team champions War Machine, the London Riots & an appearance by Nigel McGuiness. The show should be available to watch soon on IPW:UK On Demand, and they return on May 13th in Chatham.
5) From small town Scotland to big city England, the shows keep on coming!
Although not one of the more talked about promotions north of the border, Premier British Wrestling continued a fine run of shows on Saturday with Breaking Limits 11 at Greenock Town Hall. The show was headlined by a PBW Heavyweight title match between champion Jack Jester and challenger BT Gunn, and the fans in attendance saw a title change as Gunn came away with the honours. The PBW Tag-Team champions, Grado & Kenny Williams, had more luck, downing the heavyweight team of Rampage Brown & Jason Prime to retain their titles. Also on the show, which was opened by a bruising encounter between Joe Coffey & Big Damo, were Liam Thomson, Chris Ridgeway, Mark Coffey, Wolfgang & the former Buckie Boys, and PBW return on June 11th.
Thirty minutes west of their usual home in Preston, Preston City Wrestling ventured out to the Fylde coast for a show at Blackpool's Domain nightclub on Saturday lunchtime, and brought the PCW Tag-Team titles with them for a show-opening title defense. The champions, Rampage Brown & T-Bone's Team Single, fought off the challenge of ROH World Tag-Team champions War Machine, before Brown jumped in a fast car to Scotland to compete for PBW. The card was also topped by tag-team action, as the Hooligans (Paige's brothers Roy & Zak Knight) beat Sha Samuels & James Davis, and the show also featured Dave Mastiff, Noam Dar, Iestyn Rees & Charlie Garrett. PCW's next outing is on May 21st, in Liverpool.
In the "dry" setting of the Cadbury Club in Bournville, Kamikaze-Pro presented Sky's The Limit 3 on Friday. The show - which included some of the hottest talent in the Midlands, alongside one of the UK's best and a couple of odd imports - was main-evented by a women's match, an unusual occurrence for a British show even if both women were from overseas, as Awesome Kong beat Shanna. In singles matches, Zack Sabre Jr made his Kamikaze-Pro debut, defeating Tyler Bate, and there were also wins for Omari, Clint Margera, and Marshall X, the latter over former WWE star Gangrel.
Tag-team encounters provided the best of the action, with the Hunter Brothers beating the GZRS in a Kamikaze-Pro Tag-Team title match, and Kamikaze-Pro Heavyweight champion Robbie X & Kamikaze-Pro Relentless Division champion Ryan Smile teamed up to defeat Pete Dunne & Andrew Everett. The promotion return on May 15th, at the Standard Triumph Club in Coventry.
THE WEEK IN BRITISH WRESTLING: NOAM DAR BOOKS HIS PLACE IN THE WWE GCS
BY ALAN BOON | @indysleaze | MAY 5, 2016 9:37 AM
Here's 5 things you need to know about British wrestling this week:
1) Noam Dar qualified for the WWE Global Cruiserweight Series.
The latest qualifier for the summer series - to be taped at Full Sail University in June and broadcast throughout July and August - was held at Revolution Pro-Wrestling's latest TV taping, at the compact and bijou Cockpit Theatre in London's Marylebone. Although Dar had already been named as being seeded into the tournament by Triple H on a pre-Takeover conference call last month, he was instead selected to face former RevPro Cruiserweight champion Josh Bodom for a place in the series. Dedicating the match to Kris Travis, who died last month (and wearing a Travis t-shirt throughout), Dar triumphed over his rival, winning the match by submission, to join Zack Sabre Jr & Jack Gallagher in the tournament.
The show was main-evented by Zack Sabre Jr's second RevPro British Heavyweight title defense, against the "Beast of Belfast", Big Damo. Sabre Jr had earlier appeared to pull his LDRS Of The New School tag partner Marty Scurll away from a beatdown on Dar, being delivered by Scurll's stablemates in the Revolutionists, and it was Scurll who was instrumental in Sabre Jr's victory against Damo, whacking the huge Ulsterman with his umbrella behind the referee's - and Sabre Jr's - back.
As part of an agreement between the two promotions, RevPro also played host to a Pro-Wrestling EVE title match, with champion Rhia O'Reilly successfully defending against Addy Starr. After the match, PROGRESS mainstay Jinny made her presence known, attacking Starr and leaving her laying in the ring. Earlier in the card, Marty Scurll defeating Trent Seven (making his RevPro debut), and the show also featured Joel Redman & Charlie Garrett.
RevPro announced that Matt "Son of Havoc" Cross and "Speedball" Mike Bailey would be on the next set of tapings on June 5th, and also added 2 matches to the undercard of the Sabre Jr/Kurt Angle show - Will Ospreay versus Bailey, and Big Damo versus Big Daddy Walter. The relevant information can be found on their website, and all these shows appear very quickly on RevPro On Demand.
2) Joseph Conners rebuilt his Righteous Army.
Down to a lowly 2 members, following Jimmy Havoc's injury & Kay Lee Ray losing a Loser Leaves Southside match in December, Joseph Conners's Righteous Army have been a less-than-terrifying unit of late. That all changed in Southside on Saturday night in Nottingham, as KLR returned, and was joined by the veteran Paul Malen (a former Southside tag-team champion, with Conners) in a beatdown of el Ligero. That led to Conners retaining his Southside title, but only served to amp up the war between him & Ligero.
The following night, in St Neots, Southside made a statement, agreeing to KLR's reinstatement, but only on the grounds that the Righteous Army meet a foursome of Ligero's choosing in Stevenage in July. Further stipulations were added, and if they win, Ligero will have to join the Army - if they lose, they will have to disband.
The Nottingham swing, held at the Rushcliffe Leisure Centre, was one of Southside's usual afternoon & evening affairs (Day Of Reckoning 11 & Retribution, respectively), and also saw Andrew Everett defend his Southside Speed King title against Jody Fleisch. The card was stacked, with Awesome Kong and TNA luchador Tigre Uno also in, and the highlights included Conners beating Zack Sabre Jr, a women's four-way between Kong, Nixon Newell, Lana Austin & Alexis Windsor, and Pete Dunne downing Tyler Bate. The show also featured Mark Andrews, Martin Kirby, Tommy End, Mark Haskins, Chris Brookes & Southside Tag-Team champions, the Second City Collective.
The St Neots show, titled Notorious 6ix, was held at Southside's home venue of the Priory Centre, and was main-evented by another Speed King defense, with Everett putting the belt on the line against Andrews in a high-flying encounter which the American won. The Second City Collective defended their titles in the match of the night, seeing off the challenge of the Young Wolves, Tyler Bate & Dan Moloney, and Awesome Kong issued an open challenge which was first answered by Nixon Newell, but then taken up by Kay Lee Ray after Newell had fallen victim to a chairshot from the red-haired Scot. Also on the show el Ligero, Tommy End, Martin Kirby, Mark Haskins, Chris Brookes, Tigre Uno & Gangrel. Southside return on July 9th in Stevenage.
3) Doug Williams & Johnny Kidd kicked it OLD SCHOOL in Suffolk.
Just up the road from their usual Colchester base, the XWA headed to the Delphi Centre in Sudbury on Saturday for Spring Break!, a show marked - if not main-evented - by a clash of the veterans, working an old style which at one point looked to be disappearing but in fact has made quite the comeback. Johnny Kidd, 60 years old and a 40 year veteran, took on Doug Williams, who would probably be quite keen on me telling you he hasn't got quite that many years on the clock, in a *World of Sport Lord Mountevans Rules match, fought under the traditional British rounds system, and with the winner having to earn two falls, two submissions, or a knockout to defeat his opponent. It was Williams who triumphed, two falls to one in the fifth round, but Kidd (who is on something of a farewell tour) was always in the match.
The show's actual main event was an XWA Frontier Sports title match, between champion Danny Blaze and "Blackbelt" Tom Dawkins. Blaze picked up the win, by disqualification, to keep his title, as did Rhia O'Reilly, who was defending her Pro-Wrestling EVE title against Ayesha Ray. Earlier in the card, former UK Pitbull BULK beat TNA British Bootcamp semi-finalist Richard Parliament, "Pastor" William Eaver defeated Joe FX, and the powerhouse team of Critical Mass (Titan & Dominator) were disqualified against "Whizz Kid" Lance Lawrence & Voodoo. The XWA return to Colchester on June 12th.
4) Jimmy Havoc pulled a surprise out of his bag of tricks.
Despite being injured on a tour of Australia in February, Jimmy havoc has managed to keep hold of his IPW:UK title, employing heel referee Artemis to finagle his way out of actually defending the thing. On Sunday's Super Scrum show, at the Angel Centre in Tonbridge, Havoc was due to face Jon Ryan, a title shot won at March's Supershow 2, when Ryan - and his teammates on manager Dean Ayass's trio - defeated Artemis's proxies. With Havoc still injured, and claiming to have left the belt at home, it looked like the champion might have gotten away with it again, only for IPW:UK owner Daniel Edler to demand that Havoc defend the title or be stripped of it!
Obviously unable to fight, Havoc was still one step ahead and produced Joseph Conners (who had beaten Chris Tyler in St Neots for Southside two hours earlier) to fight on his behalf. The switch was allowed and Ryan won the match, but by DQ meaning Havoc kept his title. Again.
The other IPW:UK titles were all defended on the show, kicked off by tag-team champions DnD seeing off the challenge of Jay Sammon & Jody Fleisch (subbing for Jay's brother, Patrick). IPW:UK Women's champion Jetta lost, but by disqualification, to Pollyanna, and All-England title holder Sammy Smooth beat Johnny Kidd, two falls to one in a British rounds match.
Scott Star won the eponymous Super Scrum, outlasting Zack Gibson, Jonny Storm, T-Bone, Nathan Cruz, Tom Dawkins, Dave Mastiff & RJ Singh in a stacked match, and the show also featured Chuck Mambo, TK Cooper, ROH World Tag-Team champions War Machine, the London Riots & an appearance by Nigel McGuiness. The show should be available to watch soon on IPW:UK On Demand, and they return on May 13th in Chatham.
5) From small town Scotland to big city England, the shows keep on coming!
Although not one of the more talked about promotions north of the border, Premier British Wrestling continued a fine run of shows on Saturday with Breaking Limits 11 at Greenock Town Hall. The show was headlined by a PBW Heavyweight title match between champion Jack Jester and challenger BT Gunn, and the fans in attendance saw a title change as Gunn came away with the honours. The PBW Tag-Team champions, Grado & Kenny Williams, had more luck, downing the heavyweight team of Rampage Brown & Jason Prime to retain their titles. Also on the show, which was opened by a bruising encounter between Joe Coffey & Big Damo, were Liam Thomson, Chris Ridgeway, Mark Coffey, Wolfgang & the former Buckie Boys, and PBW return on June 11th.
Thirty minutes west of their usual home in Preston, Preston City Wrestling ventured out to the Fylde coast for a show at Blackpool's Domain nightclub on Saturday lunchtime, and brought the PCW Tag-Team titles with them for a show-opening title defense. The champions, Rampage Brown & T-Bone's Team Single, fought off the challenge of ROH World Tag-Team champions War Machine, before Brown jumped in a fast car to Scotland to compete for PBW. The card was also topped by tag-team action, as the Hooligans (Paige's brothers Roy & Zak Knight) beat Sha Samuels & James Davis, and the show also featured Dave Mastiff, Noam Dar, Iestyn Rees & Charlie Garrett. PCW's next outing is on May 21st, in Liverpool.
In the "dry" setting of the Cadbury Club in Bournville, Kamikaze-Pro presented Sky's The Limit 3 on Friday. The show - which included some of the hottest talent in the Midlands, alongside one of the UK's best and a couple of odd imports - was main-evented by a women's match, an unusual occurrence for a British show even if both women were from overseas, as Awesome Kong beat Shanna. In singles matches, Zack Sabre Jr made his Kamikaze-Pro debut, defeating Tyler Bate, and there were also wins for Omari, Clint Margera, and Marshall X, the latter over former WWE star Gangrel.
Tag-team encounters provided the best of the action, with the Hunter Brothers beating the GZRS in a Kamikaze-Pro Tag-Team title match, and Kamikaze-Pro Heavyweight champion Robbie X & Kamikaze-Pro Relentless Division champion Ryan Smile teamed up to defeat Pete Dunne & Andrew Everett. The promotion return on May 15th, at the Standard Triumph Club in Coventry.