Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Nov 18, 2016 12:58:59 GMT -6
www.f4wonline.com/indies/week-british-wrestling-njpw-comes-london-224766
THE WEEK IN BRITISH WRESTLING: NJPW COMES TO LONDON
BY ALAN BOON | @indysleaze | NOV 18, 2016 6:24 AM
Here’s five things you need to know about British wrestling this week:
1) RevPro's huge double shot saw a new champion crowned
As part of a formal relationship between the two promotions, Revolution Pro-Wrestling welcomed the stars of New Japan Pro Wrestling to London last week with two huge shows held under the Global Wars UK brand. Although many of NJPW's top, top stars were otherwise engaged in New Zealand, fans were salivating over who had made the trip -- with Los Ingobernables de Japon, Katsuyori Shibata, and Yuji Nagata (on his UK debut) causing the most fuss.
Shibata faced RPW Undisputed British Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. on night one, at York Hall in Bethnal Green last Thursday, in a rematch from the summer, and turned the tables on the champion, winning the belt to end Sabre Jr.'s 10-month reign. He defended it on night two, at Walthamstow Assembly Hall on Friday, in a hard-hitting bout against Chris Hero, and it will be interesting to see how things play out with the title being taken to Japan.
Sabre Jr. teamed with Marty Scurll (who beat Jushin Liger on night one) in Walthamstow, to take on Tetsuya Naito & SANADA of LIJ, and ended up being pinned by Naito. To cap an awful weekend for the former champion, Scurll turned on Sabre Jr. after announcing his departure from RevPro, having signed an exclusive contract with Ring of Honor. Scurll will join Will Ospreay in ROH, and Ospreay picked up a couple of wins during the double shot, over BUSHI and Liger, the latter while wrestling as Dark Liger!
Nagata had a successful debut, beating the British Strongstyle team of Pete Dunne and Trent Seven (who was attacked by Dave Mastiff after the match) on successive nights, and Tomoaki Honma also appeared in the UK for the first time, beating Sha Samuels but losing to Josh Bodom (who was sick in the ring afterwards).
There were also wins for Hero and LIJ on night one, and Ishii and the RPW Undisputed British Tag Team Champions Charlie Garrett & Joel Redman on night two, and the shows are available to watch on RevPro On Demand. The promotion are done for 2016, and will return early in the new year at the Cockpit in Marylebone.
2) Like a pro, Stixx went out of Morecambe on his back
There was an end of an era feel to Alpha-Omega Wrestling's Remember Remember show, at the Winter Gardens in Morecambe last Saturday. Stixx, who went into the show as AOW Heavyweight Champion, brought the curtain down on 12 years of wrestling in the town –- and nine years undefeated! -- when he faced his old pal Joey Hayes in the main event of the show.
After interference from the hooded "Sassanach Slayer" caused a DQ, Stixx may have thought he was retiring at the top but the masked man revealed himself to be King Ryan Grayson, who cashed in his Golden Chance title shot and pinned the champion to lift the belt.
Grayson's stablemates in The Referendum didn't fare so well, as Lewis Girvan & Bobby Roberts lost their AOW Tag Team titles to the Solar Power team of Cyanide & Robbie Solar, and AOW Women's Champion Viper was defeated by Lana Austin in a no disqualification, no count out, no interference title match to end a two-year feud.
In other news from the show, Chris Ridgeway -- accompanied as always by Greg "The Truth" Lambert -- beat Danny Hope before Lambert demanded a title shot for his man. Craig Kollins appeared and announced he was back, and challenged Ridgeway to an I Quit match in February. James Drake had a bad night, losing to RJM and being turned on by his acolytes in The Following (who seem to have been recruited by “The Living Dead Girl” Felony), and Ryan Hunter beat Xander Cooper to free himself from Cooper's clutches.
Alpha-Omega return on December 3rd with a Rising Stars event for trainees and tryouts.
3) Bubblegum beat T-Bone at Grand-Pro but both men lost
Grand Pro-Wrestling's Who Dares Wins, at the Rose Club in Hindley last Friday, was built around the culmination of an 18-month storyline as T-Bone and Bubblegum clashed over T-Bone's valet, Lana Austin. Their main event -- a street fight -- ended with Bubblegum picking up the win, but only after Austin had delivered low blows to both men, seemingly washing her hands of the affair.
There was excitement throughout the card, as the opener saw Jet Fashion (half of the Midnight Bin Collection) beat Sheikh Mohammed Rizzy Khan to win the Sheikh's fortune, and both GPW singles titles were on the line with GPW British Champion Jimmy Jackson defeating Joey Hayes, Mickey Barnes, and Wahoo Thunderfoot in a four-way to retain his title, and Dylan Roberts successfully defending the GPW Heavyweight belt against CJ Banks.
Other action on the card saw Ashton Smith became the number one contender to Roberts' title by pinning RJM, and there were wins for Rio (over Soner Dursun), and for Nate Travis & Isiah Quinn, who beat Melanie Price's Circus. You can see Grand-Pro action on their On Demand service, and they will return in 2017.
4) Even the Anti-Fun Police couldn't spoil ATTACK!'s latest merry-go-round
Returning to The Barn at the Frog & Fiddle in Cheltenham last Saturday, ATTACK! Pro-Wrestling served up another massive slice of fun, which even the attentions of the Anti-Fun Police's Chief Deputy Dunne couldn't put a stop to. A four-match card was accompanied by music from Junior, the pop-punk band that features Mark Andrews on bass and vocals, and the intimate confines of the venue were perfect for the mix of cartoon violence and punk rock music.
After Dunne tried to shut the show down at the climax of Junior's second set, a Happy Birthday song to announcer Jim Lee, he was joined by his brother Pete in an assault on Andrews, which was broken up by Eddie Dennis and a main event broke out.
During the course of the match, which was won by FSU after Dennis hit the Last Stop Driver, Dunne bit a fan and all four men hit dives into the assembled throng. The show finished with a successful rendition of Happy Birthday, and Chief Deputy Dunne received a stunner from Junior's drummer to cap it all off.
Earlier in the show -- which featured the debut of Chuck Mambo in a four-way won by Mike Bird -- the ATTACK! Tag Team Champions #CCK successfully defended their belts using plenty of shenanigans against Splits McPins & Lloyd Katt, and Wild Boar tried to beat some sense into "Extremely Confused" Drew Parker, who came to the ring as Taz, The Human Drew-plex Machine.
The show will be up on ATTACK!'s Vimeo service soon, and the action moves to Cardiff's Walkabout this Sunday with a huge triple main event.
5) The Dazzler Team imploded over two nights at PTNTL and ENDVR
For fans of school-night wrestling, PROGRESS opened the doors of the Bedford in Balham on Monday and Tuesday this week for a show apiece from their PTNTL and ENDVR brands. The former should be of a lesser stature than the latter but the high quality of the ProJo trainees and graduates means everyone got more than their money's worth.
Alongside appearances from main roster stars Laura di Matteo and Damon Moser (and ENDVR veterans Bea Priestley, Livvi, Danny Duggan, and David Francisco), the main talking point from PTNTL was the emerging split in The Dazzler Team, the pair of Darrell Allen & Earl Black Jr. After they had surprisingly lost to the rookie Never Say Die team, they re-emerged to answer "Body Guy" Roy Johnson's Wasteman Challenge, only to lose this too, and the sparks began to fly.
The next night, at ENDVR 18, the pair put aside their differences to take on the still undefeated South Pacific Power Trip and lost once more, with Black Jr. snapping as he accused Allen of hitting him with a spanner. RJ Singh came out to help Allen -- an old friend -- and try to defuse the situation. Later, as Johnson issued another Wasteman Challenge -- this time answered by Singh -- Black Jr. attacked the Body Guy to cause a DQ to screw Singh. Allen came out to intercede and this one is only just starting.
In other news from the more senior show, CHAKARA defeated Pollyanna in the latter's second chance at entering the Natural Progression Series, granted in recognition of her services to the Women of PROGRESS, Jack Sexsmith beat Shen Woo (despite wearing a pair of Ugg boots throughout), and there were wins for Bea Priestley, Laura di Matteo, and Damon Moser.
The show will not be on Demand PROGRESS until late January but there's plenty of other stuff on there, and PROGRESS return on November 27th in Camden.
THE WEEK IN BRITISH WRESTLING: NJPW COMES TO LONDON
BY ALAN BOON | @indysleaze | NOV 18, 2016 6:24 AM
Here’s five things you need to know about British wrestling this week:
1) RevPro's huge double shot saw a new champion crowned
As part of a formal relationship between the two promotions, Revolution Pro-Wrestling welcomed the stars of New Japan Pro Wrestling to London last week with two huge shows held under the Global Wars UK brand. Although many of NJPW's top, top stars were otherwise engaged in New Zealand, fans were salivating over who had made the trip -- with Los Ingobernables de Japon, Katsuyori Shibata, and Yuji Nagata (on his UK debut) causing the most fuss.
Shibata faced RPW Undisputed British Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. on night one, at York Hall in Bethnal Green last Thursday, in a rematch from the summer, and turned the tables on the champion, winning the belt to end Sabre Jr.'s 10-month reign. He defended it on night two, at Walthamstow Assembly Hall on Friday, in a hard-hitting bout against Chris Hero, and it will be interesting to see how things play out with the title being taken to Japan.
Sabre Jr. teamed with Marty Scurll (who beat Jushin Liger on night one) in Walthamstow, to take on Tetsuya Naito & SANADA of LIJ, and ended up being pinned by Naito. To cap an awful weekend for the former champion, Scurll turned on Sabre Jr. after announcing his departure from RevPro, having signed an exclusive contract with Ring of Honor. Scurll will join Will Ospreay in ROH, and Ospreay picked up a couple of wins during the double shot, over BUSHI and Liger, the latter while wrestling as Dark Liger!
Nagata had a successful debut, beating the British Strongstyle team of Pete Dunne and Trent Seven (who was attacked by Dave Mastiff after the match) on successive nights, and Tomoaki Honma also appeared in the UK for the first time, beating Sha Samuels but losing to Josh Bodom (who was sick in the ring afterwards).
There were also wins for Hero and LIJ on night one, and Ishii and the RPW Undisputed British Tag Team Champions Charlie Garrett & Joel Redman on night two, and the shows are available to watch on RevPro On Demand. The promotion are done for 2016, and will return early in the new year at the Cockpit in Marylebone.
2) Like a pro, Stixx went out of Morecambe on his back
There was an end of an era feel to Alpha-Omega Wrestling's Remember Remember show, at the Winter Gardens in Morecambe last Saturday. Stixx, who went into the show as AOW Heavyweight Champion, brought the curtain down on 12 years of wrestling in the town –- and nine years undefeated! -- when he faced his old pal Joey Hayes in the main event of the show.
After interference from the hooded "Sassanach Slayer" caused a DQ, Stixx may have thought he was retiring at the top but the masked man revealed himself to be King Ryan Grayson, who cashed in his Golden Chance title shot and pinned the champion to lift the belt.
Grayson's stablemates in The Referendum didn't fare so well, as Lewis Girvan & Bobby Roberts lost their AOW Tag Team titles to the Solar Power team of Cyanide & Robbie Solar, and AOW Women's Champion Viper was defeated by Lana Austin in a no disqualification, no count out, no interference title match to end a two-year feud.
In other news from the show, Chris Ridgeway -- accompanied as always by Greg "The Truth" Lambert -- beat Danny Hope before Lambert demanded a title shot for his man. Craig Kollins appeared and announced he was back, and challenged Ridgeway to an I Quit match in February. James Drake had a bad night, losing to RJM and being turned on by his acolytes in The Following (who seem to have been recruited by “The Living Dead Girl” Felony), and Ryan Hunter beat Xander Cooper to free himself from Cooper's clutches.
Alpha-Omega return on December 3rd with a Rising Stars event for trainees and tryouts.
3) Bubblegum beat T-Bone at Grand-Pro but both men lost
Grand Pro-Wrestling's Who Dares Wins, at the Rose Club in Hindley last Friday, was built around the culmination of an 18-month storyline as T-Bone and Bubblegum clashed over T-Bone's valet, Lana Austin. Their main event -- a street fight -- ended with Bubblegum picking up the win, but only after Austin had delivered low blows to both men, seemingly washing her hands of the affair.
There was excitement throughout the card, as the opener saw Jet Fashion (half of the Midnight Bin Collection) beat Sheikh Mohammed Rizzy Khan to win the Sheikh's fortune, and both GPW singles titles were on the line with GPW British Champion Jimmy Jackson defeating Joey Hayes, Mickey Barnes, and Wahoo Thunderfoot in a four-way to retain his title, and Dylan Roberts successfully defending the GPW Heavyweight belt against CJ Banks.
Other action on the card saw Ashton Smith became the number one contender to Roberts' title by pinning RJM, and there were wins for Rio (over Soner Dursun), and for Nate Travis & Isiah Quinn, who beat Melanie Price's Circus. You can see Grand-Pro action on their On Demand service, and they will return in 2017.
4) Even the Anti-Fun Police couldn't spoil ATTACK!'s latest merry-go-round
Returning to The Barn at the Frog & Fiddle in Cheltenham last Saturday, ATTACK! Pro-Wrestling served up another massive slice of fun, which even the attentions of the Anti-Fun Police's Chief Deputy Dunne couldn't put a stop to. A four-match card was accompanied by music from Junior, the pop-punk band that features Mark Andrews on bass and vocals, and the intimate confines of the venue were perfect for the mix of cartoon violence and punk rock music.
After Dunne tried to shut the show down at the climax of Junior's second set, a Happy Birthday song to announcer Jim Lee, he was joined by his brother Pete in an assault on Andrews, which was broken up by Eddie Dennis and a main event broke out.
During the course of the match, which was won by FSU after Dennis hit the Last Stop Driver, Dunne bit a fan and all four men hit dives into the assembled throng. The show finished with a successful rendition of Happy Birthday, and Chief Deputy Dunne received a stunner from Junior's drummer to cap it all off.
Earlier in the show -- which featured the debut of Chuck Mambo in a four-way won by Mike Bird -- the ATTACK! Tag Team Champions #CCK successfully defended their belts using plenty of shenanigans against Splits McPins & Lloyd Katt, and Wild Boar tried to beat some sense into "Extremely Confused" Drew Parker, who came to the ring as Taz, The Human Drew-plex Machine.
The show will be up on ATTACK!'s Vimeo service soon, and the action moves to Cardiff's Walkabout this Sunday with a huge triple main event.
5) The Dazzler Team imploded over two nights at PTNTL and ENDVR
For fans of school-night wrestling, PROGRESS opened the doors of the Bedford in Balham on Monday and Tuesday this week for a show apiece from their PTNTL and ENDVR brands. The former should be of a lesser stature than the latter but the high quality of the ProJo trainees and graduates means everyone got more than their money's worth.
Alongside appearances from main roster stars Laura di Matteo and Damon Moser (and ENDVR veterans Bea Priestley, Livvi, Danny Duggan, and David Francisco), the main talking point from PTNTL was the emerging split in The Dazzler Team, the pair of Darrell Allen & Earl Black Jr. After they had surprisingly lost to the rookie Never Say Die team, they re-emerged to answer "Body Guy" Roy Johnson's Wasteman Challenge, only to lose this too, and the sparks began to fly.
The next night, at ENDVR 18, the pair put aside their differences to take on the still undefeated South Pacific Power Trip and lost once more, with Black Jr. snapping as he accused Allen of hitting him with a spanner. RJ Singh came out to help Allen -- an old friend -- and try to defuse the situation. Later, as Johnson issued another Wasteman Challenge -- this time answered by Singh -- Black Jr. attacked the Body Guy to cause a DQ to screw Singh. Allen came out to intercede and this one is only just starting.
In other news from the more senior show, CHAKARA defeated Pollyanna in the latter's second chance at entering the Natural Progression Series, granted in recognition of her services to the Women of PROGRESS, Jack Sexsmith beat Shen Woo (despite wearing a pair of Ugg boots throughout), and there were wins for Bea Priestley, Laura di Matteo, and Damon Moser.
The show will not be on Demand PROGRESS until late January but there's plenty of other stuff on there, and PROGRESS return on November 27th in Camden.